Sharpen Your Knife
by thefudge is grumpy
Summary: 6x08 AU. Kai doesn't stab Bonnie. He offers her something, and she takes it. How will Damon react when the two return home? Bamonkai.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Yeah, this is happening. I hate myself. Because I literally have no time, but I'm doing this. I hope you enjoy! _

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><p><strong>Chapter 1 - Twisted Partner<strong>

_I'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies_  
><em>I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife <em>

* * *

><p>"Okay."<p>

"Okay? What do you mean by _okay_?"

"You said you have a way to get us out. So, let's do it. Together."

Kai threw back his chair and scoffed. "You expect me to believe you, after all the tricks you've pulled on me?"

"Tricks I pulled because of what you did to _me_," Bonnie retaliated.

"Semantics. I still don't buy it. You're never gonna let a _meanie_ like me get near your perfect town and your perfect friends."

Bonnie hated how much he reminded her of Damon. A younger Damon, if that were possible. A teasing, volatile vampire of her innocent past.

"You're right. I'm _not_ going to let you near the people I love."

"But?"

"But I – I don't care what you do to your own family."

Kai paused, his fingers hovering over the fork. The peas stuck to the roof of his mouth.

"You…don't."

Bonnie bit her lip. "No. That's your business. And I won't interfere."

Kai shook his head. "Why -?"

Bonnie got up shakily, betraying more inner turmoil than she would have liked to. She began pacing the Parker family kitchen with determination.

"I just can't protect them anymore."

"Who says you have to?"

"My conscience. It's…it's expected of me."

Kai watched her deliberate steps, watched how her body started forward and then shrank back as if she were afraid of her own words.

He shrugged. "Yeah, well, I was expected to rule my coven and when I turned out a disappointment, I went a bit insane. Expectations screw with you."

But Bonnie was only half-listening.

"I'm not in charge of _everyone's_ life, am I? I can only help so many people. And I've already saved my share. I'm tired. I – I want to save my own life for a change. Is that so bad?"

Kai lifted an eyebrow in appraisal. He was not quite sure where this was coming from, but he could work with it, _oh he could_. So, the former witch was tired of her life as a goodie-two-shoes and wanted to be selfish. That sounded right up his street.

"No, it's not. And hey, if you don't save yourself, no one else will," he said, feigning detachment. He suppressed the satisfied smile dancing on his lips. Sometimes she was so easy to mess with.

Bonnie chuckled bitterly. "Seems that way."

Kai got up and removed the plates from the dinner table. He proceeded to wash them, without looking up at her or acknowledging her current distress. He needed her to stew in her own frustration for a while.

"I remember Damon used to talk to you about this chick he liked back home. Elena something?"

Bonnie stiffened. "...what about it?"

"Nothing," he said, head still lowered. "It was just so boring the way he went on about her like that. Like she was God's gift or something."

"He has reasons for loving her," Bonnie spoke, unable to lessen the unease in her voice. She didn't enjoy talking about Elena to him, lest he got any murderous ideas. "She's my best friend. She's pretty great." _And you better stay away from her._

"Pretty great, huh? If you say so…I mean she sounds kind of lame."

"Everyone sounds lame to you."

"Not _everyone_. You're cool. Yeah, you could've _not_ killed me those three times – but you know, that takes some balls," he smirked, sneaking a look at her disapproving face.

She wrinkled her nose. "Don't expect me to thank you for the compliment."

"Anyway, my point is, if he's so "in wuv" with what's-her-name, it makes sense he'd be too happy to get back with her to bother about who he left behind."

He didn't have to look at her to know she was disturbed by his suppositions. She had probably thought the same thing in the last couple of days. Still, he gave her credit for keeping her voice neutral when she spoke next.

"Can we get back to the point? I'm not talking about Damon right now."

"No…but it sucks he didn't come back for you."

He was busy wiping the plates, and so he didn't see her coming towards him furiously.

She pushed him up against one of the cupboards, making the china rattle.

"Listen, asshole, I will get us home and I won't stand in your way. I'm even going to give you a free pass at your so-called family. But don't think for _one_ second you can stand here and mock me like this."

Kai held his breath as she swung one of the knives at his throat.

He grinned, licking his lips.

"Always so tense, Bon. Do you ever think you might enjoy hurting me a _bit_ too much?"

"Watch your tongue," she warned him.

"But I would _never_ mock you," he said with utmost seriousness. His eyes, however, couldn't quite _stay_ serious. "I'm just looking out for you."

"Right. Don't make me laugh."

"It's true. I'm only pointing out what you already know."

"Then _don't_ bother."

"I feel like you need it, though."

Bonnie walked away, dumping the knife on the table with a violent thud.

"What I need is to get out of this hell-hole and move on with my life."

Kai came up behind her and placed an awkward hand on her shoulder. She flinched as if scalded with hot water.

"What if your friends blame you for bringing me with you?" he whispered in her ear.

Bonnie pushed him away. "They'll just have to accept it."

"If they care about you, they will understand it was the only way. That's what you think, right? You might be overestimating them," he challenged.

"I know what you're doing. You're trying to alienate me from them. I don't know _why_. You're getting what you wanted, Kai. You're getting out."

He looked down awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

"Can I show you something?"

* * *

><p>Their feet made the leaves underfoot crunch with a sickening sounds. The sky was a golden violet, drawing close to dusk. The whole world – this made up world of illusions – stood quiet and waiting. They were home, in a faraway land that had no word for it. They were the only two living creatures who remembered what it meant. It felt wrong to feel empathy in this knowledge with a sociopath.<p>

Kai stopped in front of a scorched tree stump covered in more leaves.

"What are we doing here?"

"Remember how you thwarted my perfectly sensible plans of going home by sticking your magic inside a teddy bear?"

Bonnie nodded her head warily.

"Yeah, well, my sneaky twin sister kind of did the same thing. Only she was less creative."

He dug through the leaves until he found what he was looking for.

Bonnie gasped. She was looking at a sharp blade. The dagger seemed to mold to his grip like a glove.

"You'll agree a weapon is not very original."

Bonnie frowned. "It can't still –"

"Have magic? Let's find out."

Without warning, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side. He glued her hand to his until she was gripping the dagger too. Bonnie wanted to wrench away from his grasp, but his other hand came round her waist and kept her attached to him.

He closed his eyes and channeled all his energy into the dagger. Bonnie felt a tingling in her fingers and a warmth that spread through her blood like a fever.

His grip on her waist tightened. She could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He leant towards her, his frame dangerously unhinged. Bonnie feared he would fall. She put a hand on his chest to steady him, while the other was still holding the dagger. His face was twisted in concentration and pain. She could hear his heartbeats dancing under her palm. His body vibrated with energy.

The fever grew stronger. She couldn't hold him any longer. She felt like fainting.

Kai released her.

It was over.

She reeled back in confusion, head swimming, stomach lurching.

"What did you do?" she asked, panting.

Kai released a breath and looked down at the fallen dagger. He closed his lips and narrowed his eyes.

The dagger slowly but surely started to lift from the ground until it was floating between them.

His face broke into a victorious grin.

"That's great," she muttered, shoulders sagging in disappointment. "You've got your magic back."

He laughed, exhilarated. It only made her hate him more.

"No, Bonnie. We _both_ did."

She opened her mouth to contradict him, but the words died on her lips, because suddenly, the fever was no longer a fever but a pleasant aura stretching from her core to the tip of her fingers. She knew this feeling all too well, but had given up hope of ever feeling it again.

She darted her eyes at the autumnal nature around her and gave a start. Nothing had changed, and yet everything had.

But she didn't wait any longer. She let the magic flow from her, like water breaking free from a dam. The leaves around them rose up into the air, surrounding them in a fast vortex of color.

She put a hand over her mouth in disbelief. She didn't want him to see her smile. She was finding it hard not to cry.

"I think some thanks are in order," he said, smirking.

"How -? You only take magic away."

Kai closed the distance between them as the leaves flew by faster and faster, secluding them from the world in a cocoon of red and gold.

"I wanna get out of here. It's the only thing I've thought about for decades. But I don't want to be alone anymore."

"You…you won't," she replied with some reluctance.

He smiled. "Yeah, I will. I'll kill the rest of my miserable family and sit on their corpses and celebrate the victory all by myself. I'll probably find out it's not a lot of fun."

"So don't kill them."

"You don't get it. With or without them, it's the same. It's _hollow_. Well, it used to be. Until I met you. It's funny. I hate you most of the time, but you're the only person I've ever given a damn about, except my traitor twin sister. You kinda remind me of her."

"Well, the traitor part, not the sister," he winked.

Bonnie looked down embarrassed.

"You know that's just the confinement talking."

"Maybe. But I could have gotten rid of you, you know."

"_What_?" her eyes snapped back up.

"I know the spell, I've heard you do it twice now. I have the ascendant. I could've just taken some of your blood and I'd have been good to go."

Bonnie stepped back warily.

"…that was your initial plan?"

He nodded.

"You're a sick bastard." It shouldn't have surprised her, but he constantly came up with new ways to disgust her.

He laughed. "Yeah, well, this sick bastard just gave you magic. So I must have some good feelings left, deep down in my rotten heart."

"I wouldn't bet on it."

"How do you think I managed to _give_ you magic? You said it yourself; I take and take some more."

Bonnie bit her lip. "You can't trick me into thinking you care, Kai. It doesn't work that way."

"I don't have to. You're a Bennett. You know this magic shit better than I do. Magical transfer requires a bond."

Bonnie had to acquiesce to that. Sheila had taught her as much, but that was not proof of a _real_ bond.

"It's good enough for me," he replied grinning. "Plus, it goes both ways, sweetheart."

"What are you talking about?"

"I can give you magic because I want to, because I care. And you can take it from me…because, well, you do the math."

Bonnie gagged and made a disgusted face.

"You have got to be kidding me."

"So this lovely little display," he said, pointing at the leaves, "actually proves how much I've gotten under your skin."

The leaves fell dead around them.

"You little shit. You know I only feel hatred towards you."

"I don't know. Seems to me like the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Bonnie turned away from him, but he caught her arm and pulled her back.

"Look, you can keep hating me. And I can keep hating you. That's fine. We can pretend that's all there is to it. But isn't it more tiresome?"

"I beg to differ. I enjoy hating you."

He laughed. "Yeah, me too. See? You're not always miserable with me."

"You're putting words into my mouth -"

"Me? I've always been honest with you."

She scoffed. "And pigs fly too."

"Okay. Here's honesty. I don't want to get out of here and never see you again," he blurted out.

Bonnie looked into his eyes and was surprised to find there was no trace of mockery or dark humor in them.

"Do you?" he asked. _Do you never want to see me again?_

Bonnie recoiled from him, but couldn't quite push him away. She wondered how he would react if she said no. Would he be angry, would he try to hurt her? They both had magic now. They were equals.

_Yeah. He did give me magic…he didn't have to. Ugh, manipulative asshole._

"You're persuasive, I'll give you that."

"I told you, I'm not bullshitting you right now. The prospect of getting back out there and trying to figure out all that crap by myself without you is not fucking enticing."

Bonnie shook her head.

"You'll be fine, unfortunately."

"No, I _won't_. Maybe that's why I was talking crap about your friends. Because they seem kind of dumb. And ungrateful. You treat them right, you put them first and they don't give a shit. I know something about that," he said, picking up the dagger, holding its tip in his palm with a grim expression on his face. "But _I_ wouldn't do that. I never had a friend. I wouldn't waste what you have to offer."

"I don't buy your act -"

"_Fine_. Don't buy it. It's easier to just think of me as a psycho. After all, Damon is just a homicidal vampire."

Bonnie made a sound in the back of her throat, like she couldn't quite believe she was about to say this.

"Look. If you promise, if you _promise_ me not to kill your parents, not to harm anyone, and if you keep that promise – maybe I'll…" _Oh God, Oh God, why am I offering him this?_ "…be your friend."

Kai's eyes glimmered with mischief and hope.

"You really mean that, Bon Bon?"

"_Don't_ call me that."

"But you'll do it?"

"I'll consider it."

"What happened to you not interfering with my family?"

Bonnie scowled. "You can…defend yourself if they come after you. But you can't kill them. Those are my conditions."

Kai smiled to himself. _Oh, Bonnie. You can't be selfish after all, can you? Don't worry. The magic I gave you will help with that. My magic._

He had neglected to tell her that his twin sister's magic was identical to his. And when she had taken part of it, she had taken part of himself.

"Take it or leave it," she said finally.

Kai made a show of pondering the choice she was offering, tapping his chin with his fingers, making her want to take it all back.

At length, he beamed at her and extended his hand.

"Let's shake on it."

She put out her hand reluctantly. He grabbed it, not very gently, and squeezed it tightly. She could feel the magic inside him touching the magic within her, but he was not trying to steal it, for a change. It was not entirely unpleasant, feeling connected through magic.

Bonnie quickly pulled away.

"Come on, let's head back to Mystic Falls," she said with a sigh, turning towards the house.

"Whatever my _bestie_ wishes."

"Don't even, Kai."

"What am I supposed to call you? BFF?"

She groaned and walked faster.

Kai followed her with a petulant smirk at the corner of his mouth. He couldn't believe it had worked.

_But it did. Guess I do like her. _

Now that she had absorbed his magic, she would be changed, irrevocably. Soon, he wouldn't be alone anymore. He'd have someone as dark and wonderful as him.

_Too bad. I kind of liked that righteous spark in her._

But he couldn't think like that. He might have told her half-lies, half-truths, but he couldn't afford to think about her selflessly. She was going to be his twisted partner, no matter what.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: 6x09 was total meh except for some bamon moments so this chapter is fuelled by tvd writers not satisfying me. aaanyway, a lot of you decided to be lovely and leave me comments and reviews! Thank you! Thanks also to the anons Angel, Guest, Alexis, Bonkai lover, Little bird._

_Some of the events in this chapter are based on 6x09, some not (cuz delena decides to be a fart and kai is not wreaking havoc with his wifey like he should). Enjoy my inevitable descent into bonkai madness!_

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 - I'm Not That Girl<strong>

_I'm not the girl that you asked me to be_  
><em>but here I am<em>  
><em>parting onto my life, my life<em>

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><p>Getting back to Mystic Falls required several days on the road, since Bonnie adamantly refused to let Kai pilot them back.<p>

"But you'll be conscious this time around!"

"You can't see anything wrong with that sentence?"

"You'd rather get knocked out, then? Cuz I can take care of that," he teased with his ever-present wink. Bonnie was beginning to loathe it more than his psychotic personality.

"Yes, I know you can, from the time you _did_."

"Let bygones be bygones, right? That was old friendless Kai," he said, tilting his head and putting on his best puppy-dog face. "Now I have a friend."

"No, I said I _might_ be your friend on condition that –"

"On condition that I turn into a boring good boy, I got it," he cut her off, smiling tightly.

Bonnie sighed as she leant her elbows against the roof of his car. They were loitering at an empty gas station, getting supplies for the road.

"I am already regretting making that deal. I can't trust you. And you don't seem to take anything seriously."

Kai bent down to tie his shoelaces. His face was in the shadow. She couldn't see his grimace. He was annoyed and disappointed that things weren't moving faster. That she couldn't just accept him already, faults and all.

_Have to give the magic time_, he realized.

"Do you think I would've bothered to give you magic and bring you with me if I didn't take at least _something_ seriously?"

"Yeah, makes me wonder too…" she trailed off, watching him with the practiced look of the prey. She couldn't quite shake off all the times he had terrorized her. And he still had that mad gleam in his eye, the mad gleam that made it impossible to know what he was thinking. She knew she was not on safe ground, might never be with him at her side, but what choice did she have at the moment?

When she looked up, her breath stopped short in her throat.

He was inches away from her and had backed her body into the car. Bonnie almost flinched when one hand touched her arm, but then she recalled she had magic now, and she _could_ hurt him back.

However, his other hand moved to her cheek, cupping it sinisterly. She wrenched her head away, but she was arrested momentarily by the strange dark look lurking behind the mad gleam in his blue eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"You're still afraid of me," he said with the dryness of a foregone conclusion.

"And you're still a threat."

"Of course. Just not to _you_." It wasn't a false statement. He had no intention of harming his investment. Yet.

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Oh, Bon. I wish you'd stop doubting me. I mean yeah, I deserve it in spades, and I know it's gonna take a lot of time for you to trust me, but I want that possibility to exist."

It was so easy lying to her, telling her things she wanted to, or maybe _didn't_ want to hear. It was easy because lies and truths were sometimes so interchangeable.

"How can I trust you if you're still planning on terrorizing others?"

Kai licked his lips and stepped forward until their knees touched. He looked over her head at the empty yellow fields surrounding them.

"I don't have to do anything, you know. They'll fear me anyway. But I don't want you to be one of them."

Bonnie wanted to push him away, but felt reluctant, for some reason, to do it. Maybe it was the fact that, thanks to his "gift", she could now feel the magic coursing through him and it was nice to be in touch with magic again, it was nice to feel a bond, like the one she had with Grams –

She shrank at her own thoughts and extricated herself from his grasp.

_No. I can't think like that. Magic does not mean bond. He will __**never**__ be anything to me. _

He was always so intrusive, always wanting to step into her personal space, forcing this intimacy on them, an intimacy that did not exist.

_It's all an act. _

But how big of an act? She couldn't say. And it drove her crazy.

"We'll drive, like you wanted," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "We'll take shifts. I'll watch you sleep."

Bonnie shivered. "No. We'll have to stop and sleep somewhere. In separate rooms."

"Of course."

Kai approached her again, and as usual, the familiar dance between them made her take a step back. Only this time her fist was clenched into a ball of raw energy which she was preparing to release if he overstepped his boundaries. She almost _wanted_ him to do it, wanted him to cross the line, just so she could fight him with her newfound powers. Like trying out a new pair of shoes.

He looked down at her fist and smirked.

"Here," he said, and when he brushed his hand against her hair, a little white daisy appeared at her ear.

Bonnie blinked. She picked it out gingerly. She had not expected this of all things.

"I never pegged you for a sentimental," she muttered, although the flower was quite pretty.

"_Please_. I grew up in that sweet self-destructive post-80s, early-90s decade. I _have_ to be sentimental."

But just as soon as his words left his mouth, the pretty daisy withered in her palm.

Bonnie frowned. "Why'd you do that for?"

"I like it when pretty things die. But I'd _hate_ to see that happen to you. You want to put yourself first for a change, don't you? At least that's what you said yesterday. So do that. Stop fighting me."

"Or else I'm gonna end up like this daisy?" she snapped.

Kai chuckled with foreknowledge.

"No. That's the thing. You already _are_ the daisy."

_Sad, defeated, pathetic…with so much untapped potential, though_, he thought wistfully.

Bonnie had no reply to that, so instead she swallowed the bitterness down like a pill.

"But…" he trailed off, closing her fist. "…you can reverse that. You can undo what's been done."

Bonnie could feel the dead daisy tickling her skin.

"Go on. Do it," he urged.

She bit her lip and focused on the little wilted thing in her palm. The magic seeped out of her shyly.

When she opened her fist, the daisy was fresh and white.

"See?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Yes, I can revive living organisms, I've done it countless times."

"True. But I bet you never revived yourself," he guessed, smiling wryly.

"I never had to," she replied proudly, but there was a sad edge to her voice she couldn't deny. She had been hurt so many times, had died more than once. The truth was, she _always_ had to revive herself, she just never did.

They stood like that for some moments in the still and quiet, their breathing the only sound for miles.

"When we get back to the real world, remember _I_ was the one who helped you," he said smugly, and she knew that in his convoluted mind, he was not referring strictly to magic.

He watched her as her face closed into itself again, her expression growing wary and distrustful once more, but for a moment there, he had gotten her to admit, at least silently, that she needed – no, _wanted_ to change.

It was a promising start.

* * *

><p>"Stop imagining the worst case scenario. Bonnie is strong. She wouldn't have let him hurt her."<p>

Damon walked away from the Gilbert house porch, hiding his impatience as best as he could. Elena didn't know Kai like _he_ knew Kai. Didn't know how easily he got under your skin with just an evil, boyish grin.

"I know she's strong. But the guy plays mind games."

"Mind games?"

"If she doesn't have her magic, he can screw with her head."

"How do you know –"

"Because he tried to screw with my head too. That's what he does. He's a first-class manipulator."

Elena walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, but he couldn't stand still for long.

"I just have a bad feeling about this," he continued. "Why did they leave Mystic Falls? What plans does psycho-dick have for her?"

"You said Kai needs her for the spell, right? Without her he can't go home."

"Yeah, but she sent her magic away to protect us, _yet again_. So now he thinks he's stuck here. Now he has enough incentive to kill her for good."

"So what, we just give up?" Elena asked, getting tired of his attitude. "We have to keep hoping, Damon. We didn't come all the way to 1994 to picture _our_ friend dead. Liv is counting on us to get back in a couple of hours. Let's not waste it on picturing horrible outcomes. We'll find her."

"With _him_. And we'll have to take him out. And he won't let that happen, unless he takes her down with him."

Elena watched him pace in front of her old house. She had rarely seen Damon this wound up.

"Is he really that awful?"

Damon screwed up his lips in a grimace. "Worse."

"What are you really afraid of? That he won't answer…or that he will?"

They had sent the number of the Salvatore boarding house to Kai's pager and were waiting for a signal.

"Both, I guess."

* * *

><p>The hotel by the side of the road looked dingy, but expensive, in a typically postmodern Midwestern way. Giant parking lots, rows of concrete blocks made to look like a shopping center, a back yard with kiddie swings and slides -<p>

"Empty pool, though. Shame. Fine May weather going to waste," Kai joked as he strutted into the lobby, making a big show of holding the door open for her.

"Speaking of which, I always thought the chicks on Baywatch couldn't possibly have real-life equivalents, but you in a bathing suit might put that suspicion to rest," he commented, wriggling his brows.

Bonnie wondered if her eyes would get stuck in perpetual eye-roll at this rate. She slid past him and walked towards reception, where an empty desk and a wall full of room keys awaited her. She bent down to inspect them.

"You don't have to worry about meeting my expectations, though. I've got a pretty good idea from here anyway."

Bonnie realized he was watching her behind.

"More lewd comments. Joy," she muttered, getting up quickly. She had picked two random keys. Well, not so random. She made sure they were far away from each other.

"Hey, is it my fault arbitrary genes made you attractive? Objectively speaking, it's silly to pretend I don't have eyes and you don't have legs–"

"Room number 245 to the annoying homicidal maniac who won't shut up," she interrupted, slapping the key into his palm.

"And room…" he craned his neck to look over her shoulder, "…130 to the righteous little witch who just needs to let hair her down for a change. Or take her bra off. Whichever, really."

Bonnie elbowed him in the stomach on her way to the elevator. But Kai felt a sting of magic too.

"Nice. I compliment the lady and she responds with animosity."

"If that's what you call complimenting –"

"Hey, wait up for me!" he said, running into the elevator with her. He looked so giddy and free, like he had never committed one single atrocity in his life. Like he was on vacation or something. He pushed the buttons on the panel and stood back, letting the doors close.

He was still wearing his embarrassing shorts and his big sneakers and it made her think about how young he really was, despite the murderous persona.

She smirked to herself.

"What?" he demanded.

"Nothing."

"No, you smiled. What about?"

She shrugged. "Just you know – you and your Baywatch references and your sad 90s sexism. It would be endearing. If you weren't so horrible."

Kai brightened even more, if it were possible. "Admit it. I'm growing on you."

His voice had acquired that silky, soft rising edge it did when he was being sneaky. It alarmed her that she could now identify the tonalities in his voice.

But then the elevator started moving and she realized they hadn't been confined and enclosed like this since...

_The car. Damon's car._

She suddenly felt ill remembering his hands clutching her waist, gripping her neck. He had whispered terrible things into her ear, had sniffed her, almost licked her, almost…

_You have magic now. You have magic_, she soothed herself.

But she was still trapped in this metal box with someone who should be her enemy, someone who _was_ her enemy, someone she didn't know _how_ to label anymore…

Oblivious to her current predicament or not, Kai chose that moment to chat about her love life.

"So, did you and Damon ever…you know, bump uglies back in reality? I don't know how you Millennials call it anymore."

"Wait, _what_? No!"

"Really? Huh, I would've bet good money on it. I mean he was basically drooling all over you half the time you weren't looking."

"What are you talking about? He has a girlfriend. He's very committed to her, trust me."

"Sure, but you were the one pushing for a way out, while he was super content just living out his domestic fantasy with you."

Bonnie gaped at him. "Damon did not have fantasies about or involving me! He was desperate to get out!"

"Yeah, okay, keep telling yourself that. But it's a guy code, Bon. You wouldn't understand. Trust me, he had it bad," he drawled, making a suggestive face.

She wrinkled her nose.

"Your perverse imagination is –"

"Totally right, I know," he finished for her. "But I guess it's hard to notice that geezer vamp when you probably have dozens of young guys fawning over you back home. I'm kind of surprised you're not one of those mean popular girls in those John Hughes movies. You know, the girl all the jocks love and geeks secretly adore."

Bonnie chuckled with disbelief. "Your jokes are getting worse, by the way."

"What joke? Don't tell me Mystic Falls isn't your playhouse."

Bonnie shook her head, smiling. But when she looked up at him, she saw he was not amused. He was actually earnest.

"I mean that's what I find confusing about you. You're selfless and kind when you don't need to be. You're one of those girls who can have everything. Yet you're...giving it all up for the sake of others."

Bonnie leaned against the wall and looked down at her feet, bangs falling into her eyes.

"You're wrong about me. I'm a normal person trying to do the right thing. That's all."

"Yeah, but _why_? Girls like you don't just wake up one day and decide they wanna give up their power."

Bonnie wondered why this damn elevator was crawling up so slowly.

"I'm not _that_ girl, okay? Guys don't fall over me and that's _fine_. I'm not the popular one and that's _fine_. So just drop it."

Kai laughed a throaty laugh that made her skin tingle in an unpleasant way, and suddenly he was once again invading her personal space, leaning towards her, making sure his breath fell on her face. Perhaps it shouldn't have surprised her anymore that he kept doing this, but now they were in this sealed metal box and her previous panic rose up in her throat.

"What do you mean you're not the popular one? Like, okay, how many boyfriends have you had so far? Ten? Fifteen? And how many girls follow you around? A dozen?"

Bonnie made a face. "I have friends. I don't have _followers_. And I – I've only had one serious boyfriend so far and I'm happy with that."

She didn't know why she went and confessed that to him. She had nothing to be ashamed of, though. So what if he knew?

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, I know, such a shocker to you that I actually want friends and not minions –"

"No, no, back up, one boyfriend. One."

The doors to the elevator finally and at long last burst open. She was about to get out, but Kai pulled her back in.

"I pushed the wrong button and we're on the top floor," he explained, showing her the panel.

"You little shit -!"

He grinned and made to push for another button, but she slapped his hand away and made sure they ended up on the right floor this time.

She glared at him. "Stop fooling around."

"But one boyfriend?! Seriously? What, did you put a spell on them so they'd all go blind?"

"Can we stop talking about this?"

"Sorry, but this is gold. I thought your life would be like in _Some Kind of Wonderful_. But it's actually_ Sixteen Candles_. You're Molly fucking Ringwald. The shy nerd who can't see she's hot."

Bonnie groaned.

"You know, people in the real world have _real_ relationships, not just sex fantasies."

"Yeah, well, twenty years stuck in eternal loneliness makes you think of one thing only."

She made a gagging noise.

"Yeah, thanks for letting me know."

"So, is your relationship with this one lucky bastard _real_?"

His fingers played with the hem of the plaid shirt around her waist. They fluttered over the small gap of bare skin on her stomach, grazing like needles. His soft, but cruel touch reminded her of what those sharp fingers could do around her throat –

"Yes."

"As real as this?" he said, pinching her skin hard.

"Ow, asshole!"

She hit him back with a blast of magic which pushed him into the opposite wall with the force of a tiny hurricane.

Kai bent down, laughing.

Bonnie was seized up by momentary hesitation, because that had been unlike her; a bout of violence she had not foreseen. But his amusement quickly erased all doubts. He deserved all he got.

"You know you're right," he said, running a hand through his hair, piercing her with that mad gleam in his eyes.

"You'll have to be more specific. I'm right about many things."

"I wasn't paying you the right compliments. I don't want to see you in a bathing suit. I don't want to stare at your ass like a moron. And I don't want to flirt with you like the world's biggest tool. I'm not thirteen anymore."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow.

"Huh. Could've fooled me. So what _do_ you want?"

Kai smiled broadly.

_To hear you scream my name while I fuck you against the elevator doors and you try to rip me apart with magic, and I try to kill you from within, but instead we just sink lower and lower, until all we crave is to watch the world burn…_

"To be your friend."

The elevator doors opened.

"This would be me," he said cheerily and left her alone in the metal box to contemplate their exchange.

* * *

><p>His shiny new pager beeped in his pocket. A foreign number.<p>

At first he was startled, a wave of hope and panic rushing out of him violently as he threw his knapsack on the bed. Then, nausea, followed by irritation settled in at the thought of something going wrong with their trip.

And finally, full blown anger.

Who else knew his pager number? Who else could be back in 1994 with them?

_Damon fucking Salvatore._

There to undo his best-laid plans, for sure.

He sat down on the bed, grabbed the room phone and dialed the number with trembling fingers. He both loathed and anticipated the moment he would get to hear the bastard's voice.

Oh, he had _so_ many torments ready for him.

"Kai?" a voice exploded on the other end after the second ring. "If you so much as hurt one hair on her annoying little witch head –"

"And hello to you too, Damon. Long time no chat. Don't worry. Bonnie is doing just _fine_ with me," he drawled. "Better than ever, actually."

There was a pause on the other end.

"What did you do?"

"_Me_? She was the one who successfully stabbed me a couple of times. I stabbed her back a little to even the field, but we soon moved on to bickering like an old married couple. Now and then we still like to get physical. Funny how that works. Fights, you know, get so heated. One moment you're at each other's throats, the next –"

"Listen to me, you rejected 90s horror show, if you lay a hand on her –"

"_If you hurt one hair on her head, if you lay a hand_ _on her_," he mocked in a dramatic voice. "God, you sound like _such_ a Dad. I wouldn't know, since mine is a pretty accurate incarnation of the devil, but it's so _adorable_ how you act all protective about her when we both know you're just mad I get to play with her and you _don't_."

Kai heard a gasp and a faint female voice on the other line.

He smirked. "Oh, no! Did I say all of that in front of your girlfriend? Awkwaaaard."

"Where are you, dickhead? You can't hide her forever. We're coming after you."

"Oh, no, it's the other way around, Salvatore. We're coming to _you_. And you better be ready," he said, and clicked the phone shut with a triumphant smile.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: I don't know about you, but this ship has an unhealthy hold on my psyche. But enough about my crumbling sanity!_

_Thanks a lot you guys, you're way way way too kind and lovely, here and on tumblr, and I'm kind of overwhelmed by your comments and reviews, no joke. _

_And there are so many brilliant anons to thank!_

_ first off SO MANY GUESTS OMG, Guest1, Guest2, Guest3 etc. - you guys rock, srsly, are you all batman in disguise?, secondly Alexis (aw, you're my fave), Bamoner (man, Bonnie is basically Hermione for me in that I ship her with everyone and everything and though bamon and bonkai are top of the list right now, I had tiny seizures about kennett too like hoo boy), Moony240 (*bows down* 10/10 review), Bennett Witch ("touchy-feely with Bonnie" is a tv show i'd watch any day of the week instead of TVD tbh), Toothless (every time one of you mentions me as queen i cry a little just so you know), cloudfree (you're too nice, thanks!). _

_So, hope you enjoy the chapter and share your bonkai-filled thoughts!_

_PS. Those silly quotes I put at the beginning of each chapter are actually song lyrics, which okay, you probably figured out. Anyway, if you wanna listen to the song (called "Baby, it's you") for this one, check out Maria Antonia's version of it on youtube. I know that's not the cover people go for, but it's rock solid._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3 - It's You <strong>

_Is it true what they say about you?_  
><em>They say you'll never, ever, ever be true.<em>

_(...)_

_Baby, it's you._

* * *

><p>Bonnie sighed against the wet tiles.<p>

She had been craving a shower for some time. Being stuck in a car with her archenemy for an extended period of time was nothing short of torturous and a much needed release was necessary.

_Okay, perhaps **release** is not the adequate word here…_she thought, humorlessly.

Was Kai her archenemy after all, or was he just another minor villain in the scheme of things? She could handle those. She _had_ handled them before. Except, none of them had wanted her friendship, of all things.

Could she ever make good on her promise if he made good on his?

She couldn't imagine doing friendly stuff with Kai like she did with Matt, for example. She still remembered that prom night when they had been crowned king and queen. They'd laughed it off and had a lot of innocent fun, dancing and taking photos and just being cute together. At least until emotionless vampire Elena had ruined her fun.

But doing that with Kai?

_Yeah, the night would turn out bloodier than in that **Carrie** movie._

Then again, she had never pictured being Damon's friend, either, and that had happened.

_But he's not like Damon or Matt…or anyone I know, really._

And the things he said. Most of them were out of self-interest, like the flattery and the petty manipulation. But there were other lines that, while not genuine, sparked a strange curiosity in her because they didn't fit a pattern. He had moments when he accidentally confessed something from his past or about himself, and you could tell he wanted to take it back. What if she dug deeper? Could there _be_ an honest side to him?

_What if he is making you think he has an honest side?_

At this rate, her head would explode just trying to figure out a 40-year old demon kid.

So she put her head against the lukewarm spray and let the water clean off the road dirt and the paranoia. The important thing was that she was going home.

She reached out for the complimentary shampoo, but the little tube slipped and fell on the floor. Bonnie groaned and stuck a hand out of the curtains.

"Here you go."

"Thanks," she muttered, taking the shampoo from the offered hand, until –

"What the hell?!"

"See how helpful I can be, _bestie_?"

"What are you doing in _my_ bathroom?" she hollered, fighting the instinct to jump out of the tub stark naked, and run away. He couldn't see her through the curtains. Right?

"You left your door unlocked," he explained cheerily. She heard him sit down on the toilet seat. "Thought I'd drop by and ask if you wanted a snack. I got some Vanilla Cokes, some Fruit Roll-Ups and some Bagel Bites."

Bonnie cursed under her breath. She was used to hotels whose doors locked automatically. She had forgotten to turn the key in the lock, which was not only stupid, but very unlike her.

_I'm becoming brain dead, aren't I? Also, Fruit Roll-Ups? God, the 90s suck._

"You should have knocked."

"You're in the shower. You wouldn't have heard me."

"Then you should have left when I didn't answer!"

"I'm _boooored_," he complained, scuffling his sneakers across the floor. "Can't blame me. We're so close to getting out of here."

Bonnie shared his sentiment, but not when he was a foot away from her naked body.

"Great. Could you _leave_ now?"

"Nah. I'll just wait here. Also, I think we should train a bit. You know, reacquaint ourselves with magic. We've both been out of the loop recently."

Bonnie was about to protest when the second part of his statement kicked in.

"_Oh_. Yeah…I guess we should do that."

"Great! We'll get to it first thing tomorrow morning. Now, what does my bestie need next? A towel? Sponge? Rubber duckie?"

"One, I'm going to need you to stop calling me "_bestie_", and two, get up, take the disgusting snacks and go back to your room. How about that?"

"Ouch. That actually hurt my feelings a little bit," he replied sardonically. He had popped open a bag of something and was munching noisily.

_Does he ever stop eating?!_

Bonnie realized how ridiculous this whole situation was turning out to be. She was naked and shivering behind a flimsy curtain that barely hid her indecency, and he was sitting on her toilet, eating some expired junk food from a dubious hotel off the highway while talking about duckies.

"Yeah, well, I'm looking at my stomach scar and it still hurts too," she retorted, her fingers ghosting gently over the ragged skin.

"So? Just fix it up with the magic _I_ gave you."

Bonnie frowned. The idea _had_ occurred to her the minute she got her magic back, but she had been reluctant to put it into practice, because she feared the supply might not be infinite. After all, it was not self-sustained. The magic had come from a dagger. Who knew how much it would last? She didn't want to waste any on herself –

Kai chuckled. "Let me guess. You didn't do it, because you weren't going to waste the magic on yourself, right?"

_Damn him. How does he keep doing that?_ she wondered. It was really getting on her nerves how he kept making accurate guesses about her self-esteem, or lack thereof.

"That still doesn't cancel the fact that you were a jerk –"

"And you gave as good as you got, if I recall," he replied evenly.

"Only when I had reason to," was her cold response.

"Riiight… it's not like you _enjoyed_ harming me or something."

Bonnie sighed. "I didn't."

"Really? I'm disappointed," he drawled.

Bonnie switched on the shower again. She was going to get squeaky clean and feel good and happy about herself and he _couldn't_ stop her. He could just sit there and talk until his mouth fell off. She was going to ignore him and be on her way. She started humming to herself. _Going home, going home, going home…_

"How about _now_? Do you enjoy it?"

The curtains were pulled open and he stepped inside the tub.

* * *

><p>Kai needed to kick-start some of his magic in her. Make the progression happen faster. He had promised Damon a showdown. Time wasn't on his side.<p>

Violence had always been the perfect trigger, even at an early stage. Nothing could destabilize a goody-two-shoes, or an entire coven family, like brutal violence.

He gripped her shoulders roughly and slammed her body against the tiles, using all the muscles in his face not to look down at her splendid naked body.

_Why does she have to be gorgeous?_

Surprise was his upper hand. She was too shocked to react, except to part her lips and gasp for breath.

He contemplated putting his hands around her neck and squeezing tightly until her lungs shriveled up, but she would never trust him or even _consider_ helping him again if he pulled that kind of stunt. He considered bashing her head a little. Maybe scraping her cheek. Or cutting her lip.

_Her lip._

Right. He needed a different kind of violence. A violence she wouldn't interpret as fatal.

_Fuck. Can I control this?_

He didn't have many options. Not when she was naked and vulnerable like this. He had to do something to push her, but not push her too far.

He looked down at the scar on her stomach, still unhealed, still hurting, because she was too _goddamn_ selfless to fix it.

Well, he'd make it worse.

He jabbed his fingers in her abdomen and bent down until his head reached her stomach. He could see her breasts towering above his head like perfect little quinces. He had seen them before, had stolen surreptitious glances when she and Damon didn't know he was watching, but up close, they looked stupidly delicious -

He swore under his breath, because he wasn't supposed to look, because this wasn't supposed to be about sex, this was all about power, specifically _her_ power, which needed to become as black as his.

He opened his mouth and breathed over her scar, then licked it.

Bonnie froze, a small shriek getting stuck in her esophagus, like a sparrow caught in a tree.

His tongue was like a razor blade, opening the wound, making it bleed, even when there was no blood left.

He could never be gentle. He licked like a spiteful dog, at first. But slowly, the taste of her skin took over the functioning part of his brain.

He was suddenly immersed in that familiar memory of nuzzling his nose in the vale between jaw and ear while he choked her in Damon's car. It was the same smell, the same taste.

Salt and strawberries. What a freakish combination.

He kind of liked it. He kind of _really_ liked it.

He started licking the scar more forcefully, never kissing, just greedily cleaning off her scent like an animal.

_Come on, Bon Bon. Attack me. Let it rage. If you don't…fuck, I won't be able to control it. _

He could see himself growing more and more thirsty, wanting to lick further, travel down below, see what other scars there were...

He heard her breath hitch in her throat. Her body was too warm. She seemed to be inching forward, almost meeting his mouth.

_Come on!_ he screamed internally.

He sank his teeth into her skin. He bit down hard into the jagged flesh of her stomach. There had been an arrow there once. It had been replaced with his canines.

He would tear her apart at the seams, like a doll whose thread is pulled out, like a kite without string. He bit her hard.

That's when she finally snapped from her trance. When she finally moved again. A tremor shook her body. But she didn't scream.

"Aah!" he yelled as she yanked a good chunk of his hair with one hand while the other wrapped around his neck.

"_Phesmatos affligo_!"

He was knocked down by a blinding pain that started from his head and reached his toes in mere seconds. His nerves skitted and jumped into nothingness.

Bonnie kneed him in the stomach and kicked him out of the tub roughly. He landed sprawled on the cold floor, his chest heaving and wheezing.

He looked up at her shadowy figure, the way she stared him down with rage.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! Isn't it enough that you gave me that scar?!"

_Yes. That's it. Yes. Get angrier. _

"I told you – you're a hot – Molly Ringwald."

"Never touch me again! _Phesmatos quasso_!"

Kai was jerked up and down as the magic – _his_ magic – worked on him in a new sadistic way. She had hexed him with a shatter spell. All the cells in his body were breaking apart. He yelled with a mixture of glee and pain. It came out of him like a moan. He keeled over and spat blood.

"_Phesmatos strangulo_!"

Kai felt his lungs shutting down, shriveling, the way he had imagined hers would once he applied too much pressure to that little neck. He couldn't breathe. His eyes swam in tears, but he could still see her body towering over him, could see how her hands trembled violently, how her knees jerked uncontrollably, and he knew by the way she spat the words that she had lost some of that precious control, that she was giving into some of this raw passion –

He could have stopped this. If he wanted to. One flick of his hand.

But why?

Why stop this beautiful ordeal?

He only resorted to a fraction of magic to keep himself alive, while she tried to suffocate him.

He closed his eyes and pretended to lose consciousness. He kept his body very still. His head lolled back against the wall.

A few moments later, Bonnie was kneeling over him.

"Kai?"

She checked his vital signs. He made sure not to respond.

"Oh God, oh my God, _no_."

She shook him hard, slapped his cheeks, dragged him up with both hands, but he resisted every pull.

" Please. Wake up. Please wake up. Kai. _No."_

She put her hands on his chest and he felt the warmth of her magic trying to infuse life into him, but since he was already alive, the spell only backfired.

"Oh, God! Oh, my God, what did I do? Kai!"

_She's coming along nicely,_ he mused to himself. _Should I punish her a bit further?_

"Come on, you idiot!" she hollered, trying to pour magic into him again. "I only – I only strangled you a little bit…and broke your bones and crushed your insides…Shit!"

_This is too good_, he thought.

Her panicked breath fell on his face. He could smell her fear, sense how every nerve in her body was on edge, how the magic flowed through her chaotically, and yes, it flowed with _pleasure, _like she'd just had an ecstatic experience….

"So, are you ready to admit you _do_ enjoy hurting me?"

Bonnie slipped on the floor and fell away from him.

"You absolute shit!"

Kai giggled as he opened his eyes. He took in a deep breath of air. Relying on magic for your oxygen was a bit of a drag.

He felt completely relaxed and sated, almost as if he'd been given the best sex of his life. Torture was so much fun sometimes.

Bonnie was horrified, although he wasn't sure whether it was his "resurrection" or his casual recklessness that disgusted her more. She was, thankfully, wrapped up in a towel, so when she walked up to him to potentially cause him more harm, he wasn't completely distracted by those nebulous shapes underneath.

"How could you do that?! Jesus, I thought you were dead!"

Kai's grin widened. "I know! Brilliant, right?"

"You sick asshole! I can't believe you!"

"Weeell, I think you did for a minute back there. It was quite touching."

She was bound to get pissed off again.

_Here comes round two. Maybe another blast or aneurysm, or **both,** _he thought with barely concealed anticipation.

But quite contrary to his expectations, she bent down over him and grabbed his chin like her life depended on it. She bore her forest eyes into his.

"_Never_ do that again. Promise me. I can't afford to lose _anyone_ right now. Promise me, Kai."

Kai's grin melted all too quickly.

He could sense her magic. It wasn't ecstatic anymore. It wasn't chaotic, either. It was troubled. And her face, her eyes…she was concerned. She was genuinely concerned.

For the first time in his life, someone was concerned about him.

The realization made his heart stutter. It made his skin crawl. He wanted to hide his face and run away.

No one cared or wanted to care about psycho boy. No one ever _had._

She was lying. She was tricking him, playing him for a fool, just like he would.

But looking into those sweet eyes that reminded him of the Emerald City in those Wizard of Oz cartoons he watched so religiously as a kid, he lost the resolve to shrink from her, lost the resolve to doubt her, and only said,

"I promise."

* * *

><p>It wasn't normal, this whole waiting business. You sat down and you counted the hours of doing absolutely <em>nothing<em> and somehow you told yourself it was all for some greater purpose.

"We'll go back for her at the next full moon. We will," Elena kept saying with full confidence.

He was starting to lose his.

"We have a plan, don't we? We're two vampires and we're much stronger than Kai. We can take him down easily. Bonnie will stay strong. She'll wait for us. You have to believe that, Damon," she went on in the same fashion.

He couldn't fake it like her. Elena was good at acting chirpy when she was breaking down inside. He could see the worry in her eyes every time he brought up Bonnie. But he couldn't help bringing her up.

Every second the witch spent in that hell-hole with Kai made him feel more miserable. He couldn't decide what was more horrific; the fact that Kai was a real-life version of Damian from _The Omen_, or that he was playing the Hannibal Lecter to Bonnie's Clarice Starling. He had made it clear over the phone that he had some plan for her and that it involved them together, in a kind of partnership. His stomach churned at the thought. His best friend – because that is who she had become in the span of months – was at the mercy of a lunatic who wanted more from her than any man in her life.

At least assholes like Silas and Klaus had never threatened her so _physically_.

It had all been an abstract battle between good and evil.

She was the good. Always had been. If you lost the good, only the evil remained.

But what if Bonnie lost the good within her?

* * *

><p>They were sitting in her hotel room like two rivals who had decided to take a short break. Bonnie was perched on her bed with a towel around her head; he was sitting on the chair by the TV. She was sipping wanly from her Vanilla Coke. He, for once, had set the food aside and was content watching her.<p>

"Stop that. I'm pissed at you."

"I can tell."

"_Well_? Are you finally going to get out of my room? You've done enough damage for one day," she spat, but it didn't really have much bite to it. The use of magic had tired her out.

"Sure. But if I go now, will you pack your bags and run away in the middle of the night, leaving me to fend for myself?"

"There's no one to fend against," she commented dryly.

"Exactly! Without a natural enemy, I'd wither and die."

Bonnie remained silent, watching the late dusk shadows draw lines across the stained carpet. She felt light-headed, like she'd fallen through a hole, or lost her gravity. It should have made her nauseous, but instead she felt...relaxed. Or as relaxed as she could ever be. As if a surplus of magic had been exorcised and now she could breathe again.

Except, magic had never quite felt like this.

She still couldn't voice her fear; that inflicting so much pain on him had felt so _good_.

"But will you?" he insisted. "Pack your things and go?"

Bonnie sighed morosely. "What do _you_ think?"

"I think – I think you should try some of these Bagel Bites. You get used to them after the first bite." He made sure to wink after the last word, as a cheeky reminder.

Bonnie threw a pillow at him. He caught it swiftly.

"And I also think you care. That's always been a problem for you. You care too much about everyone. But in my case, I can't complain. I'm actually - what's the word? - _grateful_."

She could see that particular adjective had been hard for him to spit out. She didn't know how much of this was over-acting or some kind of attempt on his part to placate her. The little shit always made sure to sprinkle his lies with a bit of truth.

"What makes you think I care, or is that another one of your dumb jokes?"

"Oh, come on. You were practically crying over my dead body."

"That's not caring, _Kai_. That's not being a psychopath. But _you_ wouldn't know. And I wasn't crying!"

"Okay, fine. You don't care about me. And I don't care about you. But in time…this Grinch's heart could grow twice its size," he said with a stupid, childish smile.

Bonnie groaned.

"You still think I'm going to be your friend if every day you pull some new crap?"

"Well, not to point out the obvious...but your track record shows that that's how _you_ actually _make_ friends. You let them do all sort of dumb shit and then you reward them by saving their lives. I don't know – but I think I'm doing okay so far."

Bonnie wanted to lunge the TV at him.

"Why do you keep psycho-babbling me? Why do you keep talking about my friends and my self-esteem and all that crap? Don't you have a hobby or something?"

Kai grabbed the Vanilla Coke she'd dropped by the bed. He licked the rim, smirking.

"Yeah, actually. It's you."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Happy New Year, bonkamily! If you don't already know, that's what I'm calling all of us crazy trash lovers. I have accepted our condition. You should too._

_Speaking of which, holy shit, you guys are awesome! Thanks so much for your comments and support, you fuel this absolute madness. This story is our collective baby, I swear._

_Lemme round up the anons: Guest1 (thanks!), Bamoner (hah, I'm curious what you'll think about this ending), Alexis (you have, but I love hearing it anywaaaay), Guest2 (yooo, honored to hear that, I'm so glad you like it!), Bonkai Junkie (oh, friend, how I feel your name and your craving), Guest3 (killing myself too, no worries!) Guest314 (thanks for giving yourself a number, saves me trouble and aaaah, shut up, I'm blushing!) Bonkai lover (are we twins? because I call this ship crack every day)._

_So enjoy this chapter and drop some love/comments!_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4 - Pump Your Veins With Gushing Gold<strong>

_Tickle head cheek can take your throne _  
><em>Pump your veins with gushing gold.<em>

* * *

><p>"Motus!" she bellowed.<p>

The hotel parking lot was their arena. Training had evolved into a mini battle, per usual.

This time Kai wasn't playing. He was ready for her and she seemed ready for him, too.

"Oppilo!" he blocked, holding his palm outwards, his eyes trained on her.

"Torqueo!" she charged, not even giving him time to switch hands. It was a simple twisting spell, but in the right hands, it could become something like torture.

He grinned and let it touch him around the wrists and ankles. His skin tingled, then burned. He bent over, heaved, then raised his head and said matter-of-factly,

"Phesmatos Fumos Extas..."

Bonnie scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion. It was a simple neutralizing spell. Nothing seemingly dangerous about it.

"...phesmatos fumos augescens," he finished with a smarmy grin.

_Oh. Shit._

She realized what he'd done. A resurgence spell weaved into the neutralizing one. The twisting spell attacked _her,_ even though it was directed at him.

_Stupid clever idiot_, she fumed.

But she could outwit him easily. She accepted the resurgence spell, closed her eyes and swallowed it up until her body stopped protesting. She groaned in pain as she slammed her palms on her knees.

Kai watched her with interest.

"Is this a new strategy? Whining until you win?"

She lifted her palms off her knees. From where he was standing, it looked as if she were holding up small balls of light at the tip of her fingers. Then she flung them at him. Kai yelled "Oppilo!", but two of them grazed his shoulder and an electric shock went through him, so strong that he almost fell to the ground.

"Ouch!"

She'd used the resurgence spell to double the potential of the twisting spell.

_Clever, clever…_

She was smarter than Jo, smarter than all his siblings and parents combined. Where was she when he'd been growing up? He'd never had challenging competition before. This was more like it.

"Vatos!" she charged, not even giving him time to recover.

Two cars in Kai's vicinity exploded in his face, but he threw up a shield and cloaked himself, turning invisible.

Bonnie threw an anti-cloaking charm in his direction, but he dodged it easily since he had the advantage of seeing without being seen.

"Patience, Bon," he called out when she groaned in frustration. She hated when he disappeared on her like that.

There was silence for a few moments. She could only hear her slightly exalted breath. Other Side silence was different from regular silence. It was so profound, so rich that it filled up your mouth and nostrils and you could do nothing but gulp it up and let it break every memory and song you thought you knew. It was a dangerous thing.

"Come on," she called out. "You're wasting time."

It was eerie and unhealthy how she depended on him for sound, for communication, for sanity. He probably felt the same. And despite his buddy-buddy act, he probably hated it. They were each other's crutches.

Her nerves were getting more and more frayed looking at the way the flames from the cars rose up into the sky. She foolishly raised her hands to extinguish them, but the little trick cost her.

"Phesmatos superous em animi..." he whispered in her ear, his lips on her left lobe.

She knew what was coming. Extreme pain and nose bleeds. She felt warm blood spilling out of her nostrils, dripping down her lips. Her throat was closing up.

Bonnie spat blood on the hot granite and with shaking breath uttered,

_"_Phasmatos Tribum, Exum Sue, Redem Su_ -"_

Kai had one fraction of a second to realize she was performing a Disempowerment Spell. The incantation was made for a witch to strip another witch of their power. He seized up her neck and clammed his palm over her lips.

He whistled. "Damn, _Bennett_. You don't play. But don't go doing that again. You'll be stripping both of us of a limited amount of magic."

Bonnie's eyes widened slightly when she realized what she had been about to do. It was easy to forget this magic wasn't her own. Still, he had leveled a painful spell at her and she didn't like it _one_ bit. In fact, her face was sticky with blood and her breath was labored. Not something a witch like her should have to deal with. The magic scratched at her insides with wounded pride like a kitten sharpening her claws.

She bit his hand. Not a nice teeth-sinking-in-soft-skin bite, but fangs tearing at flesh.

Kai yelped, trying to wrench his hand away, but she gripped his wrist and infused magic into his skin until he was writhing and shaking, but unable to feel his hand. It spread into the rest of his body. A paralysis spell.

"Motus!" he yelled and she was thrown on her back, air whooshing underneath her as her elbows scraped the hard ground.

They were both on their backs now.

Him, paralyzed. She, flattened by magic.

It was past eleven. The mid noon sky was fat and heavy with roiling clouds. Bonnie looked at the patches of blue in between and smiled a bloody smile. A shy, sad smile.

It had rarely rained these past few months she had been stuck in May. And when it had, Damon had stayed inside grumpily and complained about the weather. She had stood on Elena's porch, enjoying the feel of the cool drops on her palms.

But now, the rain was going to come full force and she wasn't going to be sheltered anymore. The rain would wash off all this dirt and blood.

Or maybe, maybe it would rain blood.

_Rain blood? What's wrong with me?_ she thought, rather alarmed at first, but somehow, the image of a red sky, pinning her down to the ground, the feel of red water trickling down her body made her heart beat faster.

She felt alive.

The Other Side wasn't winning. Not this time.

She looked over her shoulder at the boy next to her. His nose and cheeks were grazed with black from the car explosions.

He was finding it hard to breathe. His limbs were beginning to break away from the spell, but he still looked knocked out. Or maybe it was just an act.

"We should get up. Start over," she mumbled.

"Let me guess. You were an overachiever in high school, weren't you?" he drawled.

"No, that was Caroline."

"So you're discovering untapped potential."

"More like untapped stamina," she replied, squinting up to see a bird dashing through the clouds.

"Want me to _tap_ it for you?"

"Why are you always gross?"

"Not my fault most of your statements are double entendres."

Bonnie refused to answer, stretching her legs further until she felt her joints click.

"I like how you went hardcore back there," he said, raising himself on his elbows. His face blocked the little light that remained.

"I like how you pussied out back there," she retorted, but gasped at her own words. She didn't know what'd come over. She was always prudish about these things. The word "fuck" was hard enough for her to say.

"Okay, now you have to admit that's a double entendre."

"Screw you."

"Well. Aren't you a potty mouth."

"I didn't say anything _bad_," she replied petulantly.

"Weeeell, unless you're a carpenter with a toolbox hanging from your belt, _screw_ has limited options."

"I'm allowed to say screw."

"Hey, drop the whole menu on me if it makes you feel better, _gal pal_," he grinned.

"_Gal pal_?"

"You don't like _bestie_."

"I don't like gal pal either."

"Then tell me what you want me to call you."

But their banter was cut short by drops falling on her eyelids, on his hair.

It started slow. Then fast.

Funny how that worked.

One moment the air was tight, heat and moist forming dusty shapes in front of her eyes, a web held together by their own breaths, it seemed, and then it all disintegrated into a curtain of water.

It beat down on them mercilessly, stabbing at every inch of skin, melting them into the granite.

They both got up at the same time. Kai wanted to grab at her leg, but she disentangled herself and sprinted away. She picked up speed, running through the rain.

She started to run back towards the hotel. Kai followed after her, shouting her name with laughter in his voice.

"Trying out for the triathlon, Bon?"

"If that means getting away from you, sure!" she yelled back.

He laughed harder and sped up, but she dodged the hotel doors and skipped down the graveled path towards the highway. He used a shortcut through the small front garden and jumped over the railings.

He was getting closer. Bonnie let out a shaky grunt, something between a cough and a laugh.

Water was getting into her eyes, clouding her vision. It tore at the seams of her pupils, making the world red. Bloody rain. She realized that was also the blood on her face. But she didn't wipe it off. She let the rain do what it did best.

By now she was soaked to the bone, but she felt airy and light.

She had been stuck in this world for such a long time, but it had never occurred to her to do this. Run down an empty stretch of road into the unknown. The horizon looked limitless. You never got a chance to do this in the real world, did you?

Kai was on her tracks, getting closer and closer, his sneakers pounding on the asphalt, his breath a wisp of energy spitting fire at her back.

She wouldn't let him catch up to her. She'd be first. Always better, always faster.

"Let's see who pussies out now!" he shouted behind her.

Bonnie wrinkled her nose. His vulgarity could poison the best of moments. Yet she needed him. It was incomprehensible.

"Looks like it's still you!" she retorted with a grin that had formed on her lips against her will. Her teeth flashed painfully against the rain.

She felt a scream of joy building up against her throat, but it was not so much joy as a strangled relief. The magic inside her was coiling and springing up, seeking an outlet.

And then his fingers clawed around her waist and they were both stumbling down the road, trying to catch their breaths.

He held onto her, howling with mean laughter, and she – she couldn't help it, she giggled too.

They blinked.

Kai looked like a younger version of himself, a little kid sticking out his tongue to taste the rain. His hair clung to his forehead in damp strands that made him look silly and boyish, and she almost reached out to pull them away, but then the same crazy blue eyes flashed at her merrily and she knew he was as old as could be.

His eyes had traveled south and he was marveling with diminished subtlety at her wet clothes and the shapes outlined underneath. It pricked her skin into goose bumps the way he leered at her like that. She was vaguely repelled by the notion that he found her attractive. But she was also insanely comforted to know he was just a man, when you got down to it. A man full of lust and weakness.

But his gaze didn't linger. It never seemed to linger like other boys'. He had a madness underneath this lust that guided him with precision where he wanted to go, where he wanted to _hit_.

He grabbed her clenched fist. She didn't know _when_ she had clenched it.

"Watch this," he told her, lifting his brows at the sky.

She frowned, her attention suddenly skewered. You never knew what would happen next with him at your side.

Suddenly, she could feel the magic in him, tugging and nudging at her own.

The clouds in the sky seemed to turn a shade darker, a violet bruise. The wind picked up speed, encasing them in a flurried dance. The rain seemed to pause midair before hitting their faces.

He was turning the rainfall into a storm.

"Try it," he urged her.

Bonnie let their magics intertwine. She gritted her teeth because the force of it was a bit hard to control. But soon enough, she heard the ominous clap of thunder right over her head and when she looked into Kai's eyes, they reflected the lightning crisscrossing the sky.

The bitter cold swept out the sweet May weather.

She felt avenged in a way. The month she had grown to hate with all her heart could, for some brief moments, turn into something else.

"Bet you can't turn that tree into char," he teased, nudging his head towards an innocent poplar in the distance.

Bonnie grimaced.

"Why would I do that?"

Kai chortled. "Because it's _fun_."

"No, it's not."

"You don't wanna be a pussy, do you?"

Bonnie groaned. "I regret starting that."

"Then finish it," he spoke low, his warm breath falling on her face.

Bonnie grunted and ripped her hand away from his. "I don't need you to do it."

She stared at the tree, at the sagging canopy, the wet lush leaves. Something dark slithered across the roof of her mind. It was only lightning, sinking its electric teeth into the wood.

She let out a small shriek.

Her skin tingled.

The tree was a black stump.

She had done that.

Kai was beaming at her with so much pride she wanted to throw up.

"You're a star, Bon Bon."

He leaned forward, his forehead almost touching hers. Beads of rain fell from his hair on her nose. He could be someone else from this angle. If she focused hard, she could see a different face, a different pair of blue eyes.

But Kai was Kai.

Handsome and ugly and demonic.

She sniffed at the air.

Petrichor.

That's what he smelled like. That sweet, purified smell right after the rain hits.

"We'll catch a cold at this rate," she spoke, breaking the spell. "We should get back."

If Kai was disappointed, he didn't let it show.

She trudged back to the hotel. He followed after her in silence.

* * *

><p>God, that had been awesome.<p>

She was sinking so quickly she didn't even know it, couldn't even tell. Good little souls like hers were the first to turn dark, maybe because when the light became blinding only the darkness remained.

He swung his feet over his bed playfully. He couldn't wait until she let go to the fullest. It was so exciting to watch her change under his eyes. It looked like the same Bonnie Bennett, but she was shedding a couple of skins, revealing the real core inside.

Everyone had that core deep down, he liked to think. They just needed someone like him to pump their veins with the right stuff. Not poison. Call it an elixir. His magic could work wonders like that.

She had no idea how much he would enjoy her at her darkest. He would enjoy the living hell out of her.

He liked nothing best. Pure darkness.

Well, if that darkness was _pure_…

He shook his head. He didn't have time to romanticize these notions. He reasoned with himself that he would have been happy to watch _any_ witch transform.

She just had more potential. And held a silly sort of charm to him. That didn't mean anything. Rabbits and birds and kittens held a silly charm to him.

She was a weapon. His job was to make her lethal. And her job was to make him powerful.

There was nothing wrong with having a bit of fun in between.

A knock at the door.

For one idiotic moment he almost feared it was someone other than her. Damon or…his dad. His heart sped up.

_Don't be a fucking moron_, he chided himself.

He parted the door.

"You left this in my room," she said, waving the beeper in front of his eyes.

Kai stretched his hand out to take it, but she pulled back.

"Not so fast. Why'd you call the number at the boarding house?"

Kai gulped, but a quick smile refurnished his features into the casual laziness he liked to display so often.

"Ah. Just checking if our buddy Damon made his way back to us. The trio just isn't complete without him."

"…why would you check for Damon?" she asked, her eyes darkening with something like hope.

"Paranoia? Stockholm syndrome? I hate the guy. I miss the guy," he shrugged, leaning against the door frame.

"_Really_?"

"Hey, I won't deny he was easy on the eyes. I understand where your longing gazes came from."

"My what –"

"You know, your googly eyes."

Bonnie pinched the bridge of her nose. "How do you come up with this stuff?"

"It's pop psychology. When two people are stuck together for too long, they start going gaga for each other. Creepy, right?" he mouthed, raising an eyebrow playfully.

"I didn't go gaga for Damon."

_And I'm not going to go gaga for you_, her eyes seemed to add scathingly.

He chuckled. A silly sort of charm, indeed.

"Well, if I hadn't come along, who knows what you crazy kids would have done…"

"Yeah, thanks for saving me from a reckless mistake," she rolled her eyes sardonically.

"Always here for you, _chum_."

"Chum."

"Well, bestie and gal pal are off-limits apparently…"

"I called back at the house. I got no answer," she said, turning her eyes downwards.

"You sound disappointed."

"I'm not. I don't want anyone else to be stuck like this."

"Want me all for yourself, do you?"

Bonnie stuck out her hand. "Here, take it."

He grabbed the beeper, but he seemed to pull her with him, or maybe it was his imagination playing tricks on him, because she leaned closer into him.

She spoke into his collar bone. "You know I bested you in the parking lot, right? I won."

He tilted his head to catch her eye.

"I believe it was a draw."

"Not from where I was standing," Bonnie muttered, her eyes half-lidded.

"You _weren't_."

"Neither were _you_," she retorted softly.

"So?"

"So."

"How do we settle this?" he asked.

Bonnie's eyes traveled from his collarbone to his jaw. He hadn't noticed their height difference before. Or at least, it hadn't played such an important part. He found he liked the way he could inhale her and the way she looked up at him.

Bonnie licked her lips shyly, as if she were simply wetting dry skin. Her eyes darted further up to his chin and his own lips.

Kai's heart started beating a little faster. What exactly was she playing at? Because if she was about to deploy some cheap method of seduction – he was pretty sure he wouldn't fall for it. That was _his_ ammo, after all. She was just an amateur.

He expected her to tiptoe around it, make small steps to draw him in, the way you'd reel a kite, or pull at a yo-yo. The way he did with her. He expected her to go slow.

He didn't expect her to be painfully obvious. He didn't expect her to grab his chin awkwardly and pull him down to her.

When she crashed her lips on him like a schoolgirl trying out her first kiss, his stomach did a somersault and he felt a bit like the ground was shaking. _No_, not because of Bonnie Bennett. She had just taken him by surprise. A _big_ surprise.

The air left his lungs in a rush. He gasped and covered her mouth with his, but she quickly moved her lips in a dominant position again, almost as if she had practiced the move in front of the mirror. She was ticklish and innocent, exactly what he hated. His reflexes betrayed him. He pulled her head to him to deepen the kiss, fingers caught in her still damp hair, feeling a sudden rush in his veins that had little to do with lust and more to do with _fear_.

He remembered how she'd looked at him when she'd made him promise not to play dead again.

Like she'd cared.

He could get lost in that illusion. He _couldn't_ get lost in the little breaths she took as she struggled to keep her teeth shut and not let his tongue in.

But he quivered, giving up a small piece of control.

He wasn't the only one with the elixir, it seemed. She pumped his veins with gushing gold.

Only, gold didn't let you breathe. Gold choked you. Gold melted your insides. And killed you.

That was his mistake.

He hadn't figured it out earlier.

Hadn't understood why she had been so gauche, so obvious.

The spell was pretty old and obscure. He'd read about it in some tattered Grimoire, but never experienced it.

A Poison Kiss. It could temporarily incapacitate you.

Kai fell to his knees. She only had to touch one finger to his chest and he collapsed on the floor altogether, his body unresponsive.

Bonnie wiped her lips, towering over him, her eyes glinting with righteous satisfaction.

But there was something else there too.

Something of him. Mischief.

"I won."

* * *

><p><em>AN: So I stole that Poison Kiss thing from The Originals, but work with me here :) Also, 70% of the other spells are canon, 30% not so much._

_ Until next time, bonkamily!_


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Welcome back, bonkamily! It's been a dry episode this week and well, TVD is always kind of dry when Bonnie Bennett is concerned so let's spice things up, shall we? (lol, I sound like a gameshow host, but whatev)_

_Many bonkai hugs and high fives to all you awesome reviewers and readers, here and on tumblr. You're the trashiest, thirstiest, loveliest fandom ever :)_

_Anons time: Guest1 (glad you like all of them! and Kai definitely has a case of 'I'm infatuated with power, but she IS power, so I kind of adore her too'), SallyChoo (omggg, it's so hard to choose a cool line from your review cuz the whole thing is a blast, I mean Mama Bonkai! kill me with feels why don't you? and the 'tingles, jingles and jangles' is what I will now aspire to inspire as an author), Alexis (thanks! you're probably gonna love/hate the ending), Bon Bon x Kai (oh man, you are one optimistic shipper with the weekly updates thing, like I really wish I could, but grad school is a bitch half the time. However, I try not to let too much time pass between updates), Bamoner (thanks hon!), Guest2 (no need to die anymore!)_

_So have fun with this chapter and share your thoughts!_

_P.S. There's a scene towards the end that kind of gets gory? Not for the squeamish I guess, so trigger warning._

_P.S.S. yep, those lyrics are from Azealia Banks' Esta Noche. I unapologetically love that song._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5 - You roughed me up pretty bad<strong>

_He wanna taste the cinnamon too_

_Sex is a race, I'm winning it too_

* * *

><p>With one hand on the steering wheel and another resting idly on the edge of the window, Bonnie hummed the unfamiliar, but catchy song on the radio.<p>

"Let me see you go back, let me see you go forth..."

The radio announcer mentioned the singer's name. Aaliyah. Bonnie had heard of her vaguely.

_She died young. _Bonnie smiled sadly. _That's not going to happen to me._

She felt good, for once. Not just hopeful, but carefree. The little worries and naggings that had been wearing her down every moment since she'd first entered this prison-world were fading away, one by one. She had survived confinement, she had survived madness, she had even survived Kai. She was strong, and she was going to be okay, because there was nothing this world or the next could throw at her without her being absolutely prepared.

"Mmm…" he groaned next to her, shuffling in his seat to rest his head on his left side. She could see his boyish face nuzzled in his arm. He was fast asleep, if his peaceful expression and his slow breathing were any indication, but Bonnie didn't put it past him to suddenly open his eyes and scream or stick out his tongue at her.

Just as well. She glanced at him without her usual misgivings. He was no longer a threat. He might still try to harm or deceive her, but it would be like water under the bridge. He could not impress her. Not after the Poison Kiss.

Old Bonnie _may_ have felt uncomfortable, if not downright bad, about the way she had tricked him. And old Bonnie _may_ have also wondered why present Bonnie was so at ease and remorseless about the whole thing.

In truth, she did not know. Nor did she care to prod in her head to find out _why_ she was unaffected by her recent actions. It was a self-defense mechanism, this willful ignorance. The Other Side required fast thinking and pragmatism, not self-loathing and regrets. Maybe morality could be reinstated when she finally returned home. Maybe.

She felt _good_ just knowing she had done what she had needed to do.

And well, it hadn't been a bad kiss.

She looked at his slightly parted mouth, so oddly sensuous, yet innocent. His lips were so full and pink, almost girlish. The lower lip drooped invitingly.

Bonnie shook her head and laughed.

_He's just a lost, dumb kid with too much power on his hands. And he probably likes me, but that doesn't mean I have to like him back_, she thought humorously.

She felt another laugh bubble up in her throat. She had no idea where this perennial amusement was coming from but it was good to smile and shrug her shoulders, for once.

He groaned again, clenching his fists and pressing his lips together until they turned white.

Bonnie kept humming. She pushed down on the acceleration pedal and watched the speed go up to 80 mph, 85, 90…

The scenery flew past her in a dizzying, delicious blur as the highway seemed to shrink and turn into tiny black dots at the corner of her eye. The sky burned an acrylic blue.

She'd never driven this fast in her life, mostly because Mystic Falls was a residence area where if you decided to brake too fast you got a warning from the sheriff.

But here, she was free to explore. Here in this land of nowhere and no one.

She laughed again when she felt her hand shaking on the steering wheel. She stretched her other hand further out the window and let the blasts of wind glide through her fingers, feeling a deep and pleasant ache in her bones. She clenched her fist and gathered the winds around her hand and then released them again into the sky. The magic sparked violently and the winds made a sound like glass breaking.

But no, there was a different sound too. Something like a whimper, or a soft moan.

Kai's chest rose and fell tumultuously and his eyebrows crowded on his forehead, tense and drawn. His fists were shaking. He opened and closed his mouth, releasing, at first, barely coherent sounds.

Bonnie slowed down. She wanted to hear him.

"N-no, Dad…Stop."

She licked her lips and turned down the radio. This was getting interesting.

"Don't! I'm warning you… I said don't!"

He was having a nightmare. A bad one, judging from the way he jolted in his seat, as if he was about to lunge at an invisible enemy.

Bonnie considered waking him. He seemed to be struggling with a pretty bad demon.

"Son of a bitch! I'm going to tear you apart…Please, no. Stop!" he moaned, gritting his teeth.

Bonnie tilted her head. Then again, watching him suffer was a better alternative. She liked him vulnerable.

" – don't touch her. She's mine, I – I found her – _first_!"

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. _Okay, slightly creepy. He's fighting with his dad over a girl?_

She shouldn't be surprised. The Gemini coven were as fucked up as you could find.

"Go to hell," he muttered under his breath, stomping his feet down and pressing his clenched fists on his knees. He jutted his chin forward, as if taunting his adversary.

Bonnie saw a lone bead of sweat trail down his forehead. Something about it mesmerized her. It stood out to her like a question mark. Or maybe...maybe it was the answer to the absurd existence of this demon boy.

She extended her hand and flicked it with her finger. But when her nail traced down his skin, she saw a red line appear where the sweat used to be. His skin cracked open under her finger, like the stuffing of a plump cushion. Spurts of blood bubbled to the surface. The magic was razor sharp, its incision tiny but precise. She drew her nail further down and the red line lengthened until it reached his jaw. She drew two half-moons next to it.

She could see it. The letter.

_B._

She had written down her initial on his skin.

Bonnie smiled sadly. She smiled because her innocence was gone and she didn't care all that much. She was still right, she was still _good_. But maybe not _that_ good. She liked how easy it was to hurt him.

The letter faded, but little beads of blood remained etched to his skin.

Bonnie hummed and stepped on the acceleration. The sky burned.

* * *

><p>Kai tipped his head back and gurgled the water in his throat before spitting it in the sink. He looked in the mirror and traced the little scars on the left side of his face. He had fallen asleep without those scratches. A small smile played on his lips.<p>

_Oh, Bon Bon…you make me blush._

He would've liked to feel her nails run down his back too, if he could manage it.

The magic had coiled around her faultless heart and injected the membrane with poison, so good and so sweet.

He pushed the door to the bathroom open and scanned the empty store. Bonnie was presumably outside, filling up the tank with gas.

He had time to look around for some shitty snacks to annoy her with. She had warned him not to stink up the car. Maybe he could get something with onion or garlic to really drive her cra –

His thoughts were scattered into little pieces as he felt the blow to his head. Only it wasn't a blow. It was more like being a little kid and standing too close to the fireworks your older siblings were trying to light. He saw the sparks, the explosion, the flames – all in slow motion. Space seemed to shrink and then expand. Glass and rubble flew everywhere, clouding his vision, tearing at his skin, blocking his lungs. His head pulsed and throbbed.

He was thrown back with a violent _whoosh_ and _vroom_. It felt like he was in a Saturday morning cartoon, where he was the foolish coyote who had been blown to smithereens, chasing the road runner.

He managed to drag himself out of the scorched plaster and make a dash for what used to be the doors. It was a good thing he did, because when his knees hit the asphalt, another big explosion erupted behind him, blowing up the roof and flinging the rubble into the sky.

His mind went into overdrive. He had to get out of there. It was only a matter of time before the fire reached the gas and then…

He took a step forward and then another, hands stretched outwards like a zombie. He looked down and saw a trail of fire running down from the store to…

"Phesmatos extinguo!" she screamed and the flames died out instantly before they reached the gas pumps.

Kai blinked. His face was covered in soot. He could barely breathe. His ears felt like they had been filled with cotton, every sound softened and slowed. The fire was still gently burning his skin. His T-shirt was in tatters, his shorts were falling off in pieces, his skin was black and red and singeing.

Yet, oddly enough, it did not hurt. Not anymore. His magic, in fact, seemed to be feeding off it. It enveloped him like a cool ointment, soothing and healing his wounds.

Bonnie rushed to him, her face contorted in horror and fear.

"Oh my God! Are you all right? Kai, say something! Are you okay?"

He coughed and spat ashes.

"It was an accident! I was just stretching out and then I – I don't know what I was thinking, but all of a sudden I couldn't control it, I'm so sorry!"

Kai took off his T-shirt and rubbed at his face. Little flames were still attached to his skin, but they weren't burning him anymore. They weren't even eating away at his flesh. They were stuck to him like shadows.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "How can I help?"

She didn't look sorry. She didn't look sorry at all. In fact, her eyes were filled with excitement and a delirious kind of mirth.

"Water," he rasped, licking his lips.

She rushed to the car, beckoning him to follow her. Kai raised an eyebrow. She'd had time – before she blew him and the store up – to move the car across the road.

She handed him a bottle of water.

He drank half of it and poured the rest on his face.

And then he heard it. A soft chuckle. At first he thought he'd just imagined it. But no.

Bonnie Bennett was trying to stifle a laugh.

"Sorry! You just look…so funny like that. All burned and wet."

And he did look like a sad puppy that had been saved by the firemen in the nick of time.

Water trailed down his bare chest. Shards of glass stuck out of his ribs like teeth. Flames danced around his biceps. The red gashes were slowly filling up as the magic healed him, but it was a slow process.

"So, I'm funny, huh?" he spoke lightly, running a hand over his wet hair.

Bonnie laughed, but her laughter was just like his voice, both light and dark. Her eyes glimmered with satisfaction.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh…This magic is still new to me."

_Like hell it is_, he thought, although he wasn't sure if he was upset or delighted.

"Do you want me to help you heal? It's the least I can do," she offered, touching his arm. Suddenly, the flames still dancing along his muscles reached out and covered her hand.

Bonnie stared in fascination as the fire inched higher and higher up her arm. It didn't hurt at all. It only felt like a warm touch, the way she felt when she placed her palms around a hot cup of chocolate. The flames twisted around her neck and licked at her jaw.

"Oh, I don't know, Bon Bon. You roughed me up pretty _bad_. Don't think healing me is gonna cut it."

"What _will?"_

Kai tilted his head to the side. The fire was not attacking her skin, but it was eating the fabric of her tank top, leaving her exposed.

Kai took a step forward. Bonnie took a step back until her body was pinned against the car. She fumbled for the door lock, trying to pry it open.

"Need help?" he asked, stretching his hand and unlocking it with magic. The little spurt of energy made her skin tingle.

Bonnie whimpered something under her breath. He let his hand linger on her waist. Her resolution gave in and she tumbled down into the backseat. Kai collapsed over her body, his knees jittery from the explosion. He smelled like ashes, burnt flesh and arousal.

"Can't…stand up," he muttered, his breath falling on her neck. He moved his head up and saw her watching him with an expression of disgust and desire.

"You really did a number on me," he added, watching the flames dance between them, bridging the gap between them. The red tongues dwelled on the rise of collarbone, like a necklace of sunrays.

At this rate, the whole car would be engulfed in flames. But such was the nature of his magic. It fed the fire.

"It was an accident," she repeated.

"This isn't," he said, and his mouth lowered and hovered over her collarbone. He swallowed the flames and licked the fire, kissing her skin.

Bonnie watched, enthralled, the way he consumed the fire, wolfed it down like it was one of his nasty snacks. She made a sound of disapproval, but almost against her will, she cocked her head to the side, allowing him more space. Her tank top and bra were ashes that barely covered her skin.

Bonnie's hands traveled to his stomach and wrenched out a shard of glass.

He gasped and breathed loudly, his nostrils flaring. His magic was performing a speedy recovery, but that didn't mean she could just rip apart –

She did it again, pulling a fresh shard, coated in his blood.

"Hey, Bon? Not that I'm not loving your initiative, but that kind of hurts."

"Good," she mumbled, yanking one more out, for good measure. He growled and pinned one hand above her head, putting enough weight on her wrist to merit a whimper. Her lips stuck out in supplication. Her eyelashes fluttered in fright. She was the image of the maiden being taken by the beast. He felt a shiver run down his spine.

But her free hand held up a shard of glass to his neck.

Kai stilled and grinned like a hungry shark.

"Do it."

She pressed the glass deeper into his throat until droplets of blood spurted across its surface.

God, she loved how his skin opened up for her.

It was funny, he'd had his hand around her neck in Damon's car but now she - she had him in a similar position.

What if she drew a_ B_ across his neck? Would he like that?

He grunted and pressed his body against hers, until naked skin was touching naked skin. She screamed and moaned as she felt the glass, the blood, the flesh all at once.

"Are you going to kill me or fuck me?" he whispered in her ear.

"No," she groaned, trying to resist.

"Because either you slit my throat or I..." he trailed off, one hand pulling down the zipper of her jeans. "...help you out of these."

She squirmed and arched her body into his.

"So what will be, _bestie? _Kill or fuck?"

The question dangled in the air for a few moments as she felt the demon boy growing hard against her leg.

She drew two half-moons against his throat.

"Both," she whispered and before she had closed her mouth, his tongue had wormed its way inside hers.

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><p><em>AN: Yesss, that is a cliffhanger, I am evil & you have every right to hate me :p _


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Gather round my tiny disturbed bonkamily! Time for some gore and sex and pop culture references! In other words, the magic that is Bonkai. _

_Have to say first that I got a whole bunch of wonderful anon messages on tumblr about the fic and unfortunately, I couldn't reply to all of them, but if those anons are reading this I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. and I love the rest of you, of course, but that's hardly news. _

_Now for the ffnet anons: Guest1 (aww sorry about that, but thank you!), Alexis (yey, good to hear!), Guest2 (omg I was really hoping Bonnie's transformation would come off semi-convincing so thank you! she ups her crazy this chapter, so get ready), Bamoner (oooh, I know how you feel, but I think I can spin some fun Bamonkai moments in the mix too), lalala (well, bonnie will slowly begin to understand her actions are not entirely her own anymore and that her darkness has been triggered by kai, buuuut it's definitely a mindfuck for her and a bit of a challenge for him to rein in what he has awoken with his magic. There's also the fact that kai is drawn to her goodness too, so that will add another conflicting side to their relationship), Anastasia (agreed! he is the bane of my existence and the fire of my loins tbh), Guest3 (hahah yeeeees, embrace your trashiness anon, embrace it)._

_Okay, now for some heads up. This chapter is dark. And when I say dark, I mean it. Trigger warnings for dub con (but light dub con), gore, blood and violence. Now, for us dumpster babies, it's probably nothing, but to all the innocents reading this, be careful._

_Anyway, enjoy the crazy!_

_P.S. "Desire" by Meg Myers & "Worst Behavior" by Drake for this chapter._

_._

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><p><strong>Chapter 6: Get Lost In The Horror With Me<strong>

_Desire, I'm hungry _  
><em>I hope you feed me <em>

* * *

><p><em>Oh God. I'm going to –<em>

She found it difficult to finish that thought or its implications. One solitary ray of clarity shot through the dark haze of lust and adrenaline. The light made her flinch. What was she doing? Was she actually going to have sex with a deranged psychopath?

_No. Can't. Shouldn't. _

She was the only one left out of her friends who hadn't gone through this rite of passage. Everyone had been involved with someone disreputable and toxic. Even Matt, sweet ol' Matt, had gotten entangled with Rebekah. And Katherine's daughter. _At the same time._

But this was so much _worse_, because at least vampires had some kind of skewered moral code and had been turned into monsters against their will. This guy was just plain _evil_ and in love with it. Any kind of vulnerability was either an act or another twisted facet of his psychosis.

And she found herself not only liking it, but _wanting_ it; wanting to continue their current activity. It made her stomach lurch in a bad way.

_Just a lost, dumb kid..._ she had thought. But kids were a lot more dangerous than grownups. Kids had only one goal: pleasure, namely, their own.

So when his tongue invaded her mouth, she knew he was mainly doing it for his own pleasure, because she had never been kissed this selfishly before. The other few guys she had locked lips with before had been pliant and generous. The strange thing about Kai was that he _reminded_ her of those guys, but he also invalidated past experiences altogether. His sweetness had teeth. He only gave so he could take some more. He kissed you like he was strangling you, cutting off all air supply, crushing your lungs, leaving bruises on your tongue.

The boy hadn't kissed someone in twenty-something years. It showed. The Poison Kiss had been a hasty weapon, but now, he had time to explore. He grabbed her jaw forcibly and raised her head to meet his mouth, digging his nails into her skin without mercy. Bonnie gasped into his mouth. She didn't much appreciate his ministrations since he was inadvertently twisting her neck.

_Inadvertently? No…nothing inadvertent about this. _

He twisted harder, to the point where she felt her bones might snap. She moaned against his teeth, but it was a moan of pain. He craned her neck even further, the other hand sinking into her hair, pulling at the strands.

Shards of glass slithered and scudded across her skin, pinching her flesh where his stomach met hers, and the stickiness of his blood made it hard for their flesh to come apart. It made her shudder. The closeness was a thrill, but it also _hurt_.

Maybe she wasn't ready to have sex in the backseat of a car with a bruised and battered Kai. Maybe she was.

"Can – you – stop – hurts…" she muttered, groaning.

Kai roamed over her features with confusion.

"Isn't that _good_?" he asked innocently, echoing her own words when he had asked her to stop picking at his wounds.

Bonnie grimaced. "That was…different. I'm not like you. I don't get off on pain."

"So I'm gonna assume you totally did _not_ enjoy burning my flesh, poisoning me, stabbing me to death, gouging my eyes out…slitting my throat," he trailed off, looking down at the long shard of glass which had slipped from her fingers to the floor of the car.

"You – you pushed me. You deserved that. Just because _you_ enjoy watching others suffer –"

His hands traveled back down to her jeans. Before she had time to react, he ripped through what was left of her zipper with so much force, she screamed.

"Kai!"

One hand rested against her panties, while the other grabbed her jaw again.

"You know why you're so ridiculously wet right now, Bon Bon?"

His voice was so calm, so contrary to his actions. Bonnie growled and tried to push him off her, her magic coiling and snapping like an angry snake at his smug expression, but his own magic was ready to come out and play. The waves of energy clashed and sparked off each other. Bonnie closed her eyes and trembled as the magic ricocheted against his and hit her instead.

This was payback for almost blowing him up. It had to be.

His eyes were dark and mean and mischievous as they narrowed down on her.

"It's because I'm a _liiiittle_ bit of a murderous psychopath. Like, I could bash your brains out if I got a random craving for it. I'd split your skull open right…here," he said, tapping her forehead gently. "And your heart-shaped tiny head would spurt _soooooo_ much blood, I'd drown in it."

He laughed a horrid little laugh and tapped her forehead again.

"You see, it excites you that I'm a killer," he trailed off, his fingers moving in a circular motion against the fabric of her underwear. Bonnie stiffened. The magic inside her coiled for a different reason altogether. He was disgusting and awful. A perverted demon-boy. His fingers ran up and down her mound. Her eyes fluttered half-shut. She had almost given in to him. She had almost – but what _was_ she doing now?

She bit her lip not to betray any sign of arousal.

"And, judging from the state of my fingers, power is a big turn on for you, Bonnie-Boo. To be specific, power over _me_. It excites you that you can hurt the terrible, evil psycho."

She slapped him hard. Not like you'd slap a jerk. No, she pawed at him, like an animal. He laughed and cupped her underwear, her heat pulsing into his palm.

"Why the animosity? I think that's _great_," he grinned, the "great" coming off like a shark chomping on a fresh piece of meat. "Embrace what you want, Bonnie. It's what I do."

"And that's worked out so well for you," she retorted hoarsely, wrenching her head away. "You've been stuck in hell for more than a decade."

A frown marred his boyish features for a few startling moments, but he recovered his good humor almost instantaneously.

"At least I ended up here because I quote-unquote _deserved_ it. But you? You let them walk all over you. Face it, Bon Bon. You got played."

"No. I sacrificed myself, it was my choice, it was -"

"Bullshit, is what it was," he replied lightly, rubbing his palm against her wetness.

"Shut the fuck up," she spat, pushing her hands against his chest. His magic rumbled against hers dangerously.

"Ohohoho…that's more like it."

She gritted her teeth. "The only reason you're getting out of here is _me_. So get the fuck off me and never touch me again. Asshole."

She thought Kai would have some kind of negative reaction to this, but instead, his smile deepened. "Aw. _Shivers_. You have the balls of Winona Ryder in _Mermaids_. By the way, is Cher still a thing in the real world? Did she ever win that second Oscar?"

Bonnie couldn't believe this. He was doing it again. He was ranting about some inconsequential pop culture thing in the middle of an argument.

"I _told_ you to get off me, you little shit."

"I knew it. No one would actually _give_ her a second Oscar."

Bonnie was fuming. She stretched her hand down and grabbed the shard of glass lying on the floor.

"I'm warning you. I'll cut you to pieces, Kai. And I'll make sure you won't come back from that."

"And I already _told_ you," he retorted, his voice low and dangerous. "Do it."

They acted at the same time.

She closed her eyes and plunged the glass into his neck, once, twice, thrice… He shrieked in agony but he bent down and sank his teeth into her left breast. He bit down, hard.

They both screamed. His tongue swirled around her nipple while his teeth mangled her flesh with vicious fervor. He was trying to skin her alive. Blood was flowing freely from his neck wounds, but he kept feasting on her breast, peeling off the layers, hardening her nipple until it hurt. Bonnie arched her back to give him better access. She felt a sick laugh bubble in her throat as she plunged the glass into his back. Kai mewled and grunted into her skin, his lips forming a wicked smile as he took care of her right breast. Bonnie finally opened her mouth and moaned once, deeply.

She couldn't get enough of it. Stabbing him, ripping him apart. Fuck, he was right. She wanted to cry. Wail and weep for this part of her that was coming alive. She got off on pain.

And his tongue and teeth were drawing blood from her too. She pressed herself to him, she twisted her body, she wanted everything.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that he was healing his wounds with magic, but he smiled at her almost angelically, his plump lips inviting her to try again, to slash and cut and tear him into pieces. Bonnie felt a tingling in her fingers, something feral building inside of her.

"_Do it,"_ he had said. His words did something to her. She sank the glass into his spine and twisted hard.

_This is not me. This is not me. This is not me_, she kept telling herself, begging her mind to respond, but her magic was singing.

Kai growled without restraint. "Fuck!" he yelled as she twisted harder.

Bonnie's head was swimming. God, it felt so _good_. And he wasn't even touching her now.

"Don't stop," he moaned, raising himself over her so she could have better access at him. Bonnie felt her hands shaking, but her magic was egging her on. She howled as she stabbed him again in the ribs.

Kai closed his eyes and smiled, although there were tears in his eyes. His nostrils flared in pleasure.

"That's it, just like that…" he murmured, lost in his ecstasy.

She was fascinated by his inhuman reactions. How could someone enjoy this so much? How could _she_?

She remembered all those times she had tried to kill him after Damon left. All those times she had hurt him so bad, she thought she would finally kill him. But he always got up with a fucking smirk on his face and nudged her to do it again, because to him, this was _living_. This was heavenly.

She felt her insides stirring and her core twitching in expectation.

His head dipped down and he kissed her gently at the corner of her lips, almost as a thank you for subjecting him to this pain. Bonnie scowled and slapped his head away. Kai grinned. He fastened his hand around her neck and squeezed.

"Kill – and – fuck – and kill again. Am I right, Bon Bon?"

She forgot about the terror he'd subjected her to in Damon's car. She forgot, because this was _better_.

She cried out, feeling a need inside her that hadn't been there before. She held the shard of glass with both hands and jerked it into the sensitive muscles of his abdomen, the blade rising and diving, the way you'd cull a knife against a cutting board.

He shuddered and writhed and groaned, his hips twitching above her. He squeezed her throat harder. Bonnie rubbed her thighs together, feeling tears smarting in her eyes.

It was – _surreal_. But she was close to something. He was choking her. And she was tearing into his flesh. How could this be so goddamn arousing? How could it incite her so much?

"Oh, Bon Bon, so close…" he murmured into her collarbone as his grip on her neck grew tighter and tighter.

She felt her heartbeat in her throat and her core exploded.

"K-Kai!" she choked, gasping for air.

Her body went rigid and then soft. She saw stars. Her thighs went weak, moving by their own accord in the aftermath of her orgasm. _Ohhh...this is bad._

Kai growled madly when she removed the glass from his stomach and he went completely slack against her, as he came against her leg.

"Fuck, _Bon_!"

She felt the fabric of his shorts warm and moist against her and tasted the bile in her throat. He was bloodied all over and the evidence was on her hands. He let go of her neck.

Bonnie inhaled sharply, panting like there was no tomorrow. And there might not be.

They were two animals who had consumed each other like fresh game. And they hadn't even had sex. They hadn't even caressed. Layers of flimsy clothing still separated them.

And yet, her body _vibrated_ with the strength of that orgasm and so did his. They thrummed together for several moments, their shallow breaths mingling.

He lowered himself on her and the stickiness was cemented against her skin.

"That was –" he mumbled, his sweat-drenched forehead resting between her wounded breasts.

" – insane," she finished for him, running a hesitant hand through his wet hair.

She looked up at the padded roof of the car and let out a sigh of pleasure and regret. Her mind was a blank. She didn't care. She didn't care about _anything_.

Except -

"Are - are you okay?"

The question hung in the air for several tense moments. Kai stiffened against her. He felt a chill run down his bloodied spine.

"I always am," he whispered into the hollow of her chest.

How she could still care about his welfare and want to destroy him in one breath was beyond him. He remembered the way she'd made him promise not to die. He felt his dick twitch in response. Her conscience was getting twisted, spread thin, but it was still there, _lurking_, and it got him hard.

Oh, her darkness was precious, but the impure mixture of goodness and evil made his blood sing and throb.

The little witch had joined him in the nadir, but she was unwittingly gifting him the zenith left in her too. It was intoxicating.

He wanted to fuck the goodness out of her... and into _him_.

Kai started trailing little kisses down her stomach. So feathery and soft that they scared her.

"You don't know how long I waited for someone to do that."

Bonnie's head snapped up.

"Do what?"

Kai raised his eyes to meet hers. She could swear they twinkled with joy.

"Get lost in the horror with me. I thought I was alone."

"You _are_," she protested, but her voice trembled.

He blew warm air over her pelvic bone. "Not anymore."

His teeth drew down her underwear.

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><p><em>AN: because Bonnie and Kai are naturally redefining sex. More of what Kai started in the next chapter because I'm Satan. Share the love and review!_


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